Customer Reviews

The God Chasers: My Soul Follows Hard After Thee

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I had to take a few minutes just to let all who are out there in search of a real relationship with God that this book is a must read! I thank God for giving Tommy Tenney the vision and inspiration to write this book. There are times I was weeping while reading because I couldn't believe that someone was finally able to put on paper what I've been feeling in my spirit so long. If you're tired of complacency and mediocrity in the body of Christ...this is the book for you. I think everyone who professes to be a Christian should read this book and put it into practice. I'm starting the chase...will you?

One of the greatest books I have read in the past 20 years. Tommy Tenney has captured the essence of what it means to truly chase after God. He explains that we can no longer be a gimme, gimme bunch of Christians running around asking what is God going to do for us. In the Last Days we have to die to self if we are to ever receive His Presence in our lives, families, churches and cities. Please read this book and then study it with someone who REALLY wants to know the heart of God. Excellent Old AND New Testament Bible study material of the symbolism God presents to us in His Word.

Several friends of mine had read THE GOD CHASERS and received a great deal out of it. However, I also knew several people who read the book and did not enjoy it all. I didn't know exactly what to expect and began reading this book with an open heart and an open mind. The book contains a powerful message about being broken and putting God first in our lives, so much so that we become a God-chaser instead of just being chased by God. The stress on brokeness is a message that the Church tends either to avoid nowdays or gloss over with a bunch of warm-fuzzy Christianity. As much as God is the loving, humble servant, God is also a fierce and mighty warrior. This is a lesson well worth remembering.

Nevertheless, this book is not for everyone. The author makes that clear in his introduction. Not everyone will find the book interesting. Of course, it doesn't help that the author repeats himself in just about every chapter. Still, in this user-friendly world of ours we tend to forget how powerful and awesome God truly is. Anything that reminds us of that power is worth noticing.

The God Chaser is a must read book for anyone who has longed to have a relationship with God. It bypasses all the usual religious traditions that most of us have been taught and gets straight to the heart of the matter, God. This book is hard to put into words what it will give you but I gaurantee that after reading it, you will never be the same agan. You will have a thirst and a hunger to be with and know God.

This book should come with a warning label, "Your life will be significantly changed by the time you finish this book". Never have I read a book that has so thoroughly fed me spiritually, but also leaves me ever so hungry for Him. Besides the Bible, this book should be must reading for all serious Christians who want more of the Lord and less of religion.

Oh dear. How disappointing it is to read a book that somewhat challenges you, only to later see the Author at a conference and quickly realise he is nothing but hype. Tommy, you disappoint me. I request that you please stop quoting Tozer as if you share any commonality in thought or theology. Tozers preaches a changed LIFESTYLE, not mere excitement and experience. Dear reader, if you're a Pentecostal (as I am), and simply want to find the 3 step guide to this or the 4 S's to this, or perhaps you want to find the right "Praise-Phrase" to unlock God's power (unbelievable), then this book is probably right up your alley. If on the other hand you want to hear from a man that truly is a God Chaser, forget Tommy's revenue raising, Tozer quoting books, and go directly to the quoted, AW Tozer's, The Pursuit of God. After re-reading the God Chasers since seeing Tommy live, I saw through the well polished stories designed to excite you, but hardly challenge you or bring about real change in the reader. As Tommy says at the end of Chapter 1, "Éyou are barely holding back the tears nowÉ", what emotional drivel. It's not (just) about feeling or emotions, or even tears Tommy, it's about the stuff Tozer speaks of, a changed man, a lifestyle that hungers and thirst's for the face, for the glory of His face. Before you challenge my boldness, PLEASE go and see a Tommy T conference and see for yourself, "for many shall come in that dayÉ".

I found this book to be so captivating. You can feel the anointing bursting forth from the pages. This will inspire you seek God... His presence, His glory, His glory. To truly chase after God means to abandon all that the worldly people and a ton of christians call comfortable. This is one book you will have to read a few times in your pursuit of God. I highly recommend it for the people who are dead serious about meeting God face to face.

After reading this book, I can tell you this: If you are just thinking of reading this book without seriously commiting yourself to take some action, then I suggest that you don't read it at all. The special mesage that God has placed in this book will not come alive in your life without your commitment. Although I agree with everyone that the context of this book is definitely an important one, I personally think this book would have been even more powerful if it was more concise and to the point. I really enjoyed(and learned much too! from) the first few chapters, but after a while I felt like the author was repeating himself over and over again. In my opinion, repeating what was said too many times and italicizing his words too often defeated its purpose of emphasizing important words and delivering the message with greater influence. However, this is a minor attribute considering the fact that it contains a critical message that every Christian who wants to seriously KNOW God needs to consider. I pray that through this book your life will be transformed so that everyday your soul follows HARD after God along with many God chasers in this world.

I was going to give this book two stars and then I decided on just one because, apart from all the theological and, in my opinion, unbiblical issues in the book, it is just written incredibly badly. I have only read to chapter 4 so far ... .I have no dispute with the basic concept of the book, which is that only those who really hunger after God with a single minded focus that brings constant repentance, humbleness and brokenness can achieve intimacy with God. However, that is not a particularly new or groundbreaking concept and Tenney's expansion on that concept has some serious problems.

The writing style is incredibly repetitive and the logic is downright circular. Stories are told which have no relation to the previous point made or the point to be made or to the section title. And the anecdotal stories end up all being essentially the same and not particularly inspiring at that. As commented by previous reviewers, he also does tend to use verses out of context and I sometimes don't see how the verse is linked to the point he wants to make. Moreover, he frequently makes these very extreme, exaggerated statements; for example, our flesh stinking to God.

All that aside, it is chapter 4 that really got to me. In that chapter, repentance for specific sins, repentance that leads to salvation, intercessory prayer for the repentance/salvation of people/cities and transformation to Christ's image (although he never actually mentions Christ) that comes from abiding in Him and His word are all mixed up together and intertwined as if they were one thing and interchangeable. In the chapter, he constantly talks about our need to die before we can see God, based on the fact that when Moses asked to see God's glory, God told him that no one could see Him and live. He also talks incessantly about how, in the old testament, they had to tie a rope around the ankle of the high priest when he went into the holy of holies in case he did not survive the encounter with God and they had to pull him out. The serious issue is that he completely ignores, and to my mind actually twists, the two most fundamental tenents of the Christian faith. The first is that by accepting Christ and His death on the cross, we have already died and been born again. We ARE new creatures, freed from the bondage of sin and we don't have to try to die once more to see God. We do have to live out that new life so that we live "not I but Christ in me", but we certainly don't have to strive to die again. Watchman Nee's classic, "Not I but Christ" is an excellent study on Roman 5 - 8 where Paul describes our new situation in Christ. The second fundamental tenent which Tenney ignores is that, covered by the blood of Christ, I have the right to come boldly to the throne of God. I do not "stink" to God because I am covered in the Blood of the Lamb. And regardless of what Tenney thinks, nobody is going to know or see God FULLY until they are physically dead and physically leave this world! We can achieve greater intimacy with God, but it will always be, as Paul puts it, like looking into a mirror, but then, i.e. when we physically die, it will be face to face. Unfortunately, Tenny's interpretation of that verse seems to be that the "then" refers to when we make ourselves die.

I found this book so exciting that I could not put it down. Many of the members of the church I attend, as well as the pastor, have experienced an incredible thirst for GOD encouraged by the reading of this book. Oh, how we await for the glory of God's presence to fall in our church (HIS CHURCH), our cities, our towns, and our nation in such a powerful way that we all will stand in awe, repent of our sins, and give praise to the LAMB of GOD. Just like the author, I, too, long for my savior and friend with a desire to be broken by HIM for his glory. I await to see the fulfilling of HIS WORD: that HE WILL POUR OUT HIS SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH!!! This book is a definite MUST READ!!!